The Case of Incorporating Religion into the IBDP Theory of Knowledge (TOK) Course

This blog post was one that I’d been thinking about for several years, but it wasn’t until given the opportunity to guest post for Religion Matters blog that I finally wrote up my thoughts.

You can find the post here. When I originally wrote it, I had a different final paragraph. It had to be cut and the ending reworked a little due to word limits, but I thought it would be worth posting that final paragraph here. Be sure to read the whole post, starting with the link above, before you read the below paragraph.

First Draft Final Paragraph

I’ll conclude by addressing those that might question the legitimacy of discussing religious knowledge in classrooms. Some point out the lack of evidence for a reality beyond the material world. They argue that schools should stick to the evidence-supported knowledge from the sciences and avoid speculative and superstitious discussions of the supernatural. Of course, this point hinges on the definition of evidence; if we accept only empirical evidence (that which we can observe and measure with our human faculties and technological tools), then it’s true that we can’t substantiate claims about reality beyond the material. However, going back to the scientific knowledge framework – the scope and methods of the sciences – we must point out that science lacks the tools to investigate any unobservable, immeasurable, and immaterial dimension of reality. To put it in terms of scientific hypothesis testing, the claim that all reality is material is an assertion unfalsifiable within the scope and methods of science. Those that make this claim are making it absent empirical evidence. Their claim is a matter of belief; it’s a faith claim about the nature of ultimate reality. This means, ironically, that the claim that all reality is material is better situated within the scope of religion rather than science.

And that last sentence is a great knowledge claim to kick off a discussion about religion and knowledge in a TOK classroom.